from Cleveland.com Panic, contradiction and incompetence rule the trade deadline for the Browns -- Bud Shaw CLEVELAND, Ohio - Did we say we'd seen this all before in Berea? Check that. We haven't seen this. The AJ McCarron non-deal was an unmatched combination of panic, contradiction and incompetence. Pursuing McCarron was questionable enough for various reasons, one being he does not solve your franchise quarterback search. They say some of the best trades are ones that are never made. This would qualify as that. But reaching that conclusion should feel better than it does for Browns fans looking for reason to believe this regime has a clue. The sense was that pursuing McCarrron, a fifth-round pick and backup to Andy Dalton was done - almost done - to placate a head coach who has one of the owner's ears and was angry about his front office's failure to make a play for Jimmy Garoppolo. Reports of a coaching staff enraged to see the execs leave the office early the night before the trade deadline is, if true, evidence of a serious fracture in Berea. It means coaches are now making people outside the building privy to the dynamics inside. That's never good. Best case, the Browns would've given up too much for McCarron. A second and third rounder is a higher price tag than the 49ers paid to extricate Garoppolo from the Patriots. And it makes so little sense you now have to wonder if the front office lost a power struggle to Hue Jackson, or panicked and threw him a bone. Either way this is bad business. If a front office can lose a power struggle to a head coach who's 1-23, whatever that says about its standing with ownership cannot be good. In a 24-hour period, the Browns were not involved with Garoppolo, then suddenly overly enthusiastic in chasing McCarron, then a non-player again because of a failure to get the paper work in on time? The take from Cincinnati is the Browns didn't seem to be on the same page -- imagine that -- and that disagreement over the cost of the deal figured into the delay. The Bengals got their paperwork signed and into the league office at 3:55. The Browns paperwork didn't arrive before the 4 p.m. deadline. The Browns front office is relatively green by NFL definition, but that falls well short of a satisfactory explanation for what happened. At the same time, you wonder how upset the front office is that such a questionable deal didn't go through. A coaching staff that already doubted everyone was pulling in the same direction was given more reason to be suspicious. In one simple non-transaction, the Browns covered all the bases of dysfunction. The front office showed panic in placating the coaching staff. As for contradiction, take your pick. Valuing McCarron higher on the trade market than what the Niners paid for Garoppolo. Or being willing to bring in a quarterback who might win a few games but compromise the 2018 draft and chances of landing a franchise quarterback there. If the Browns end up parting ways with kicker Zane Gonzalez this week as rumored, no one would blame him if his first thought was, "Oh, so I'm the problem here?" We were once again left wondering by day's end if anyone - front office or coaching staff - knows what a franchise quarterback looks like. And how long it will take the owner who put this marriage together to seek yet another annulment.
Me too Rok...Too old to change teams now. See ya Sunday. I would say, "i don't think it could get worse", but the Browns keep proving me wrong every time I say that....
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has reinstated Josh Gordon on a conditional basis. He must have impressed Goodell at his reinstatement hearing on Wednesday. Gordon is eligible to resume practicing with the Browns on November 20, putting him on track for a Week 13 return. When Gordon sees the field, it will be his first game action since 2014. It's anyone's guess what Gordon has left after missing most of the last three years due to repeated substance abuse violations, but he led the league in receiving yards as a 22-year-old in 2013 and should be a worthy stash in all formats.
McCarron and Lewis can be quoted as saying the Browns goofed. Now it all depends if the Agent and Bengals are spinning the blame to the Browns or vice-versa. Either way one organization isn't doing the other any favors.
I think the argument that Wentz and Watson would not be good if they were here is a ridiculous one. No Browns fan is arguing that the QB's would be able to perform better on a more talented team. Of course they would. That doesn't mean squat to the Browns. OF COURSE we would be much better off with either one. It's stupid to think that either of those guys wouldn't be producing TD's here, at a much higher rate than we currently are. Right? THAT is the point...Are we supposed to pass on all good players because they would be better off on other teams??? lol! I would think not. If that's the case, we might at well just pack it up... edit: I'm not talking to anybody in particular here. I've just read that. And I've had that brought up to me like a dozen times. It's really hard being known as "the Browns fan" like I am. People see me and they just can't wait to pounce on me about this fest of a football team...It's just brutal.
Well Bye week update. FO / Coaching staff not in synch (breaking news). Flash Gordon is allowed to participate in individual practices with the team, and participate in team practices starting Nov 20. I'm inclined to call that a win. As Godell stated: "it's up to Josh". Amen. I'll be pulling for him, but I think it's an uphill climb, the like of which he's never climbed before. Talent won't win the day, commitment and mental toughness is. Good luck Josh. I'd be estatic if he made it back onto the field. We could surly use his skills, assuming he still has them. I suspect he does, but it won't be the key to playing again. I could see the FO and even the coaches leaning towards getting a draft pick for him, if he makes it through, and I'm not sure I blame them. I could see him making the effort to get back, but when the season ends and the long off season begins, well...... On the QB trade: I think Bill is taking a chance, and for no apparent reason, I think Jimmy G was anxious to avoid Cleveland. I think Cleveland would have to have made a significantly better offer to get into that conversation. I know, I know, it's a business decision, but sending a guy you really like to the QB graveyard, just feels wrong. Like a couple of you guys posted, it's not the move or lack thereof that really bothers me, but the apparent schism between the FO and Hue, that exposes some "real" problems, yet again, in the organization. Differences exist in every organization, but they generally stay "in house" if the organization is truly committed to one another, despite the differences. Cracks are showing, and frankly if we don't do some winning, they will break us apart. We can all point to things done at the FO and coaching level we don't like, but I think we expect them to support one another, regardless. Hue has crossed that line a couple of times. It speaks to Hue's not understanding his role within the organization, as a "team player". I'm rambling. Sorry. God there's 10 days to bitch and moan.
From PFT... Ownership went “nuclear” on Browns front office on Wednesday The Browns committed an epic bungle on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the folks who own the team justifiably reacted, strongly. Per a league source, ownership (specifically Dee Haslam) went “nuclear” on the front office in the aftermath of the failed effort to consummate a trade for Bengals quarterback A.J. McCarron. The reaction comes even as the Browns spent much of Wednesday trying to persuade multiple media members that the Browns didn’t screw up the trade that was indeed screwed up. The Browns contend that they signed the appropriate paperwork to reflect their agreement to the deal, that they sent it to the Bengals for signature and submission to the league office, that the Bengals sent documentation signed only by the team, and that by the time the error was detected it was too late to rectify it. It’s possible that the Browns, who have executed multiple trades under the current regime, always do it this way. Which is fine if there’s time to get everything buttoned up. It’s not fine if, as in this case, the deal has been negotiated as the annual deadline for doing such deals approaches and the other team doesn’t send to the league office documentation signed by both teams. Meanwhile, multiple teams (the official number now stands at seven) have told PFT that the Browns and Bengals should have separately informed the league office of the terms of the trade. As one source put it via email to PFT, “Only requirement is for both clubs to separately notify the league office via email of trade terms. If trade terms match, deal done. No need to sign paperwork and submit prior. Have 15 days to submit trade papers (with terms that identically match emails).” Although the Browns have provided the media with plenty of grounds for criticism in recent days, the strong, negative reaction to Tuesday’s trade-deadline misadventure is smart, proper, and in many respects overdue. The football operation currently is a mess, and even though ownership seems to be committed to showing that it can stay the course for at least two full years, a 1-23 record, decisions to pass on Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson, and the embarrassing failure to consummate the McCarron deal should cause them to chart a new course ASAP — and to eventually hire someone smart and capable and to get out of the way completely and let that person try to fix things, once and for all.
The AJ McCarron trade debacle has laid bare the plain fact that Browns coach Hue Jackson and the people who run Cleveland’s front office are not a good fit. But that should have been clear long ago. In fact, it was clear to many people outside the Browns’ facility. It just wasn’t clear to the Browns. When Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam fired coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer after the 2015 season, they quickly moved on to make a radical overhaul of their approach to building a team. That overhaul was exemplified by the hiring of Paul DePodesta, a baseball analytics expert who was one of the central figures in Moneyball. The Haslams were clear: They were going to go all-in on the Moneyball approach, to a greater extent than any NFL team had done before. And then they proceeded to pair the Moneyball front office with Jackson, who doesn’t have an analytics background and doesn’t seem to believe in that approach. Saying they’re not a good fit isn’t 20/20 hindsight; we’ve been saying it since before Jackson ever coached a game in Cleveland, and an April 2016 ESPN the Magazine profile of DePodesta made it clear. That profile portrayed Jackson and his coaching staff as not only uninterested in analytics, but actively hostile toward the analytics people in the front office. “It’s not just Hue Jackson,” an NFL executive quoted in that profile said. “When data overrides gut, the majority of his coaching staff will all be there screaming, ‘What the f— are these computer guys doing? They don’t understand football, they don’t understand the locker room. They’re killing us.'” If the Browns wanted to rebuild their team using some of the same analytics tools that baseball and basketball teams have successfully used, they should have hired a coach who’s on board with that approach. Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, for instance, has an economics degree from Georgetown, and has an appreciation for analytics. Would Schwartz have succeeded as the head coach in Cleveland? Who knows? But he at least would have been on the same page as the front office. Jackson is not on the same page as the front office. The Browns may realize that now, after the current regime has lost 23 of 24 games. It shouldn’t have taken so long.
Move over JFK assassination freaks, there’s a new conspiracy in town. That town is Berea, and the principled parties are Browns ownership, key decision maker Sashi Brown, and head coach Hue Jackson. The team’s failed attempt to land Bengals backup QB AJ McCarron is one of the more spectacular cluster-franks in team, nay NFL, history … and is at the center of said conspiracy. The general gist of the story is that the Browns were negotiating to acquire McCarron around the NFL’s 4 pm trade deadline on Tuesday. After agreeing to compensation, the deal failed to go through due to procedural issues most likely on the Browns end. The why behind the failure is the real story, and where conspiratorial forces may have been at play. Initially it was thought to be a clerical error, which makes sense given the Browns recent history of full blown incompetence. One theory that’s gained traction since the trade fell through is that Brown purposefully killed the deal. Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer sparked the initial this theory with his take on the deal. “Multiple league sources told The Enquirer there was a disconnect in Cleveland between the personnel department and the coaching staff about McCarron, which has hindered talks between the two franchises about the quarterback dating back to the spring.” It’s not the Zapruder film but it’ll do. Jackson is clearly a fan of McCarron from his time in Cincinnati. He’s been complementary of McCarron both during his time in Cincinnati and now in Cleveland. The Browns front office has no ties to McCarron and reportedly preferred Patriots backup Jimmy Garoppolo and spent the off-season chasing the now former Patriot. Additionally, there is nothing about trading a 2nd and 3rd round pick for an unproven backup halfway through the season that screams analytics. It’s a move that cries desperation in the face of a 1-23 start to the Hue Jackson era. Flawed as they have been, the Browns front office has not shown the propensity to panic. The initial onslaught of free agency in 2016 didn’t cause them to panic. Nor did the failed hardball negotiations of Terrelle Pryor’s agent. In both cases, the front office kept composure and moved on. “If you don’t like what they are saying about you, change the conversation.” Don Draper uttered these immortal words to a client who was sick of being savaged in the press in an episode of Mad Men. It’s clear that this was a panic move meant to satiate fans pissed off at a 1-23 record. Fans who are pissed that the quarterback the Browns spent last off-season chasing, Jimmy Garoppolo, ended up in San Francisco for a reasonable price. So if this move is about desperation and alarm, who are the parties in the Browns organization prone to such thinking? The Haslam ownership group has been one gross overreaction after another since taking over roughly six years ago. From hiring to firing Joe Banner, promoting Ray Farmer to not lose him, drafting Johnny Manziel for the immediate relevance he’d bring as much as his actual prospects as a football player, and blowing up regimes after 1 and 2 years, this is the Haslam’s track record of composure. Despite preaching patience at the start of the season, worry, and doubt have become a clear issue again for the Haslam’s. “I have been told the Haslams are deeply concerned about starting to lose their fanbase,” 92.3 The Fan’s Brown’s beat reporter Daryl Ruiter shed light on the ownership’s struggles during an appearance on the Ken Carman Show Monday morning. Make a headline now to placate and distract fans from the fact you can’t run your organization properly. Hue Jackson has also shown he will lose reason in the face of pressure. Just this year he has benched his quarterback DeShone Kizer multiple times in the name of winning despite promising to ride out the rookie struggles, and bungled in-game timely decisions when the pressure hit. This deal is eerily similar to one that Jackson made in 2011 as head coach/dictator of the Oakland Raiders. After a quick start to the season under future former Browns QB Jason Campbell, the team hit a skid when Campbell went down for the season. Faced with the prospect of the season falling apart, Jackson traded a 1st and 2nd round pick for Carson Palmer who had retired in protest of the Bengals personnel decision to replace him. Jackson played Palmer right away in a move that ultimately failed, costing Jackson his job at the end of the season. Overpaying for a quarterback mid-season as a hail Mary to get some wins? Jeez, that sounds familiar. The only difference being that Carson Palmer was somebody before and after the trade. A former 1st overall pick in the NFL Draft and a Pro Bowler. McCarron was a 5th round pick that has proven literally nothing in the NFL. He’s been equated with Browns backup Cody Kessler, a kid full of moxie but short on talent. His real claim to fame is being Mr. Katherine Webb. (Brent Musberger approves.) You have two entities known to panic and one who is known to stand their ground. The aftermath of the failed trade is also telling. Multiple reports say Browns ownership went “nuclear” on the team’s front office over the deal. Back and to the left. Why? Simplest answer is the deal was THEIR baby. Critics have contended that Brown is thought to have made the calls in the 3 o’clock hour to negotiate the trade with Cincinnati. So why would he blow it up? He might have been the person on the phone, but that doesn’t mean it was his decision to negotiate the trade. Isn’t it plausible, given the history of those involved, that he was doing so under the orders of the Haslam’s? The Browns knew the Bengals terms earlier in the hour and said no. What changed? Did Sashi fall in love with McCarron since April? Or since 3:15 pm? Or did the Haslams, full of dread at their team’s waning relevance, override the group they charged with turning around the team and buckle to the Bengals outrageous demands? Whether you approve of Sashi Brown’s football acumen or not, it’s clear that he’s an intelligent and reasonable man. Brown must have understood the Haslam’s sensitivity to PR disasters and how botching this trade would cause a gigantic PR snafu which would mean his job. Why would he risk his career to defy the wants of a panicked ownership group? Simple: he’s spent 2 years building the organization to this point, and caving to public pressure isn’t reasonable or responsible leadership. This is football, everyone is well compensated so I’ll spare you the violins but the failed McCarron trade should be a wake up call to reality for Browns fans. It doesn’t make sense that Sashi Brown would want this deal and then willfully kill it. It also doesn’t make sense that a front office who has conducted multiple trades in 2 years would suddenly forget how they work. The emotionalism of Browns ownership and Hue Jackson is dangerous when left unchecked. Spending massive assets out of panic is a colossally moronic idea, even if it’s a well-meaning attempt to find a win or two this season. I have little doubt that Sashi Brown will be fired over this botched trade. The Haslam’s emotional reaction will again conquer reason and give way to more dysfunction. The front office is also an easy patsy. Their Harvard degrees & analytical focus have been an ideological threat to a proud blue collar, football town in Cleveland. People have shouted their failures and whispered their successes from the start. Yet if he intentionally killed the McCarron trade, Brown showed real leadership, the kind the organization has needed since 1999. For that, he deserves your appreciation and maybe a congressional medal of honor. My advice to Sashi Brown? Beware the grassy knoll in Berea. There is always some rage monster lurking with eyes on those displaying reason and accountability. The Browns organizational incompetence runs from the top through its core. There’s never been a worse time to be the last reasonable man in Berea.
Carson Wentz is the NFC player of the month and the Eagles have the best record . Wentz is a true leader & a man of faith . we can debate all day long that him or Watson wouldn't have had the same production with the Browns but I sure as hell wish we had him . I highly doubt that Kiser is the long term answer at QB .
I think it's highly probable that Sashi Brown saved Cleveland from a terrible trade...The cruel irony is, he'll probably get fired over it. I also think our track record with QB's is what cost us the opportunity to trade for Garoppolo. The Patriots really like Jimmy G., and they were not going to send him to the "graveyard of QB's" here in Cleveland. It was reported by Adam Shefter this morning on Mike & Mike, that the Patriots knew they could get more from the Browns, but they wanted to do Jimmy Garoppolo a solid, and send him to a better situation in SF...It's a rumor, but it's one I believe 100%.
